SIR – On March 3 there’s a referendum to decide if Wales deserves a stronger voice.

Over the last decade the Assembly has gradually grown in stature and confidence. But the system for making laws that affect Wales is slow and complicated. It wastes time and money.

A Yes vote will allow Assembly Members to spend less time talking about procedures and more time focusing on the problems in our communities.

Why should Wales have to wait three years to improve services for people with mental health problems when there is all-party agreement within the Assembly that change is needed?

Why should Scotland and Northern Ireland (which is half our size) be allowed to set their own agenda when Wales can’t?

Even though we are from different parties we have come together to stand united behind a simple principle – laws that only apply in Wales should be made in Wales.

That’s what the referendum on March 3 is about and we need your help to get a Yes vote.

Please support the cross-party campaign by looking online at www.yesforwales.com and sign up to help.

CARWYN JONES, Labour

IEUAN WYN JONES, Plaid Cymru

NICK BOURNE, Conservative

KIRSTY WILLIAMS, Liberal Democrat

ROGER LEWIS, Chair Yes for Wales

Happy with LCOs?

SIR – It was implied in the Western Mail that the LCO system is not working because of the length of time allegedly taken at Westminster, where AM Ann Jones has said that laws made by the Assembly are “interfered with” (“Wales first with law on new-home sprinklers”, Feb 17).

She also added that she hoped this process – which has been fully supported by two Labour secretaries of state and the former Labour chair of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, Hywel Francis – would be a “short-lived law-making arrangement”.

As Labour members of the True Wales No Campaign, we would like to point out that, according to the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Select Committee Review of the LCO Process (Fifth Report of Session 2009-10), there was a delay of 104 weeks before this LCO was passed by the Assembly to Westminster.

The reason for this was cited as being because “special advisers” at the Assembly were looking at the Transfer of Functions Order on the building regulations. Mr Francois Samuel, Department for Housing, Sustainability and the Environment, told the Welsh Affairs Select Committee that “the drafting itself and the comments and scrutiny did not take long”. The Report was published after just eight sitting weeks.

Following this experience, Ann Jones AM told the Welsh Affairs Select Committee that she was a “huge supporter” of the LCO process, felt it was “the way forward” within the devolution settlement and was “happy” with the way this LCO had progressed.

It is not a good sign of a healthy democracy when a thoroughly decent and hard-working AM like Ann Jones appears to feel under pressure publicly to contradict herself.

RACHEL BANNER

NIGEL DIX (Labour councillor, Blackwood)

Convoluted logic

SIR – Several No campaigners have written to you with I fear more bias than sense.

Roger Everest for example says that a Yes vote would end Westminster scrutiny giving “AMs too much power for their own good” and that “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”, yet he would give Westminster absolute power over Welsh lawmaking.

Laws made in Scotland and Northern Ireland are not scrutinised by Westminster. Does he consider therefore that these institutions are “absolutely corrupt”?

Mr Everest’s logic is somewhat convoluted when he argues that voting No in order to restrict devolution is consistent with voting Yes to promote devolution.

What is the unique bond which Wales is supposed to enjoy with England? Is it the bond that a slave enjoys with its master?

The referendum is merely an opportunity to speed up the process of law making in Wales, nothing more.

M J Crouch also appears to have absolutely no idea as to the reason for the referendum. He has wandered into the realms of super capitalism and globalisation, the behaviour of international bonds. None of this has anything remotely concerned with the referendum.

Byron Richards is also unaware of the reason for the referendum. He appears to think it has something to do with Wales becoming a republic and so wishes to abolish the Assembly, well wide of the question before the Welsh people.

Edgar Jones has got the referendum mixed up with forestry and wind turbines, so this is best ignored.

The question before the Welsh people is: Do you want all laws made by the Assembly covering devolved matters to be scrutinised in Cardiff – as indeed many are at present – or do you want them scrutinised for long periods of time in Westminster, sometimes taking up to three years’ scrutiny?

B G LEWIS

Rumney, Cardiff

S4C’s talking shop

SIR – I was most concerned to read about S4C’s Dyfrig Jones’ confused state of mind ( Letters, Feb 17).

Perhaps as the person whose comments were the trigger for his confused state, I feel compelled to offer some answers. Piecing together Jones’ statements and other public statements from S4C we now know with certainty, and for the record, that:

S4C’s new media forum is no more than a talking shop with no executive commissioning power, influence or budget.

The S4C digital media fund, often trumpeted to the Government as a sign of the channel’s progressive strategy, is nowhere to be seen, has no executive in charge, no budget allocated and no strategy.

We also now know that Jones is not acting in an executive capacity as chair of the new media forum, further cementing the fate of the forum as one without any executive ability or capacity to “do” anything.

So with no budget, no executive leadership, no strategy or influence over the future direction of travel, the only real confusing question that could prolong Jones’ perplexed state is: what exactly is the purpose of the forum? Why are we paying £8,000 for people to attend a talking shop, when most of those attending talk regularly amongst each other anyway?

As I stated in my original observation: If the channel is to truly embrace and succeed in digital, it needs to put “digital” at the heart of its operation under the watchful eye of a senior executive or better still the incoming CEO, and it needs decisive and robust, action. And it needs to act today.

A talking shop on the fringes of the channel is simply not good enough. This and the next generation of digital media consumers in Wales deserve more than lip service.

WIL STEPHENS

CEO, Cube

Blind will suffer

SIR – Poverty and isolation await many visually impaired people if the Welfare Reform Bill is passed in its current form, according to research supported by Action for Blind People.

We want to draw the Government’s attention to this injustice – and invite your readers to help.

The Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is a financial lifeline for many blind and partially sighted people. Replacing it with a Personal Independence Payment could mean up to 12,000 visually impaired people losing this vital benefit – sacrificed to help the Government save £1bn.

In addition, visually impaired people find it more difficult than sighted counterparts to find and retain work. So plans to limit the contributions based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) to 12 months could result in severe poverty for many.

Linking benefits to the Consumer Price Index (rather than the higher Retail Price Index) will also be a hammer- blow for those claiming higher rate DLA. It could represent a loss of up to £360 a year.

The Government must engage with visually impaired people when planning welfare reform.

Your readers are invited to help highlight these injustices by visiting www.actionforblindpeople.org.uk/campaigns to download a letter to send to their MP, as well as to find out more about the research findings, published in the report, More Than Meets The Eye.

MIKE THORNICROFT

Action for Blind People

Recession a myth?

SIR – I recently received a very glossy and expensive looking magazine from an organisation called Communities First which had been posted to every household in the Blackmill ward, Bridgend County Borough.

We have a Westminster Government, a Welsh Assembly Government, a Welsh Office, a Bridgend Borough County Council, an Ogmore Valley Community Council, a Blackmill and Glynogwr tenants’ and residents’ association. Consequently, where is the justification for a further burden on the taxpayers?

Communities First has two staffed offices in the Blackmill ward, an area totally dominated by Labour politics. I was born in the 1920s. Consequently I must ask the question, is this recession that we are bombarded with in the media a monstrous myth?

HANDEL WILLIAMS JONES

Blackmill, Bridgend

Vernon remembered

SIR – The letter from GAC Welply (Feb 11) about the Magazine feature on talented people from the Amman Valley (Jan 29) raises an interesting point relating to the memory of the late Vernon Pugh.

While the article on Shane Williams listed some of the famous people from the Valley, a rather more comprehensive list of notables can be found in the Amman United RFC Centenary Book published in 2003 titled “Roll Along Amman United, Roll Along”.

Vernon’s inclusion in this publication will ensure that he will not be forgotten in this Valley for his contribution to Welsh rugby.